The Sword and Laser discussion

After purchasing recently the "Neverending Story" movie on bluray I wanted to grab the story on Kindle and read it to see how differently the movies diverged from the book's plot. It wasn't available on Kindle. I had to order the hardback cover version of this from amazon. Hope it is worth the money. This will be the first dead tree edition I've read in about two years. I really like the portability of the digital readers.

Didn't realize this was originally a novel by a German author. I hope the translation is good.

Has anyone read this?

The Neverending Story

Never read the book, but I now have the Limahl theme song in my head...

If you're German-speaking you kind of can't not read it. I've read it when I was about 14 and I loved it. Especially with the movie soundtrack in the background.
It has very little to do with the movie, though. The book continues the story far after Atreyu's quest. And it's much deeper. It's a sort of German children's book classic so yeah, I'd say it's worth a read.

I don't know if they do this in the English editions but the font colour actually changes from green to red depending on where in the story you are (real world with Bastian or Fantasia with Atreyu). That always struck me as a fantastic little extra for a book. Makes you feel like you're inside the story.

The film only adapts the first half of the novel. The second half ... well, the ultimate message of the book is 180 degrees from the movie. (view spoiler)[After the Nothing destroys Fantasica, Bastian has to recreate the world from his own imagination, but in doing so he becomes a cruel dictator. He finally learns that too much daydreaming is a bad thing and he should learn how to deal with reality instead. (hide spoiler)]

Didn't they make a second film at some point?

If only I had access to some massive store of information that would help me find out... oh, hang on.

Hmm, in fact parts 2 and 3 were made. Never seen either, but the reviews are pretty dire.

Yeah, they did make a second (and even a horrible third) film which kind of has some elements of the book in it but turns it around... very weird.

I liked the first movie a lot, even though it's only half the story. I like them each in their own way but don't necessarily see them as the same story.

The book is very poetic and has fairy-tale elements in it. It's been a while since I last read it but I have fond memories, also of the second half.

@Sean: Damn it, I knew I got the names wrong. Fantastica, not Fantasia. They also changed the German "Fuchur" to Falkor, right? Sounds so wrong to my ears. :)

I loved the film as a kid and I remember reading somewhere that the author was pretty angry with the adaptation. Now this thread has enlightened me as to why! (And now I'm adding it to my Goodreads to-read).

The movie is essentially the first chapter of the book. I loved the book and the movie for very different reasons. I with this book was required reading in every middle school in America as it has a great message.

@Ryan: I totally agree.
In Austria and Germany (I can't speak for the Swiss, I hardly know any) it's not necessarily required reading. It just happens to every kid. Parents - at some point - just drop the Neverending Story in front of the kid and the kid will read it. I knew very few people (other than the ones who hate books just for the heck of it) who haven't read the Neverending story.

It deserves to be read.
And yeah, Michael Ende was pissed as hell about the movie. Even though I think it has its own merits.

Btw, for those of you who already like him, there's a younger (meaning still alive) author who was discovered by Michael Ende and has similarly poetic ideads. Ralf Isau probably has never been translated to English though. Shame!

I loved, loved, loved The Neverending Story as a kid (or teen, I guess) and still love it.

I do think it is better than the movie, but I also really like the movie (the first one). Basically the book goes on and covers a lot more.

So, yeah, do read it. I don't know if any other books of Michael Ende have been translated and are easily available, but I would also recommend Momo.

As for other German fantasy writers I would throw in Kai Meyer and Walter Moers. I read one book by Ralf Isau, but I guess it could have been the wrong one, because it really annoyed me. Kai Meyer's Dark Reflections trilogy is pretty great, starting with The Water Mirror. And Walter Moers is just generally awesome.

Haha, I thought this thread was going to be about super long fantasy series, and which ones were worth the time commitment to read.

Oh, this isn't about Song of Ice and Fire?

@Anne: He wrote some bad ones too (Isau, I mean) but Das Museum der gestohlenen Erinnerungen. Sonderausgabe. Ein phantastischer Roman is one of my favourites to this day. :)

@Tamahome: Tyrion is awesome! (Now, it is :D )

Linguana wrote: "@Anne: He wrote some bad ones too (Isau, I mean) but Das Museum der gestohlenen Erinnerungen. Sonderausgabe. Ein phantastischer Roman is one of my favourites to this day. :)

@Tamaho..."

I read Das Netz der Schattenspiele. and I thought it was pretty mediocre. Maybe it was the fact that I'm a software developer that ruined it for me. I should try some of his other books, some look pretty good, I guess I grew a bit too cautious.

Wow, I loved the movie as a kid (but recently re-watched it and it didn't hold up). I also liked the second movie (though that might have had something to do with Jonathan Brandis being in it....). Never watched the third. Somewhere in my brain I knew it was a book, but I'd forgotten. This one will be added to my "to read" list now. :)

@Anne: Yeah, that one took me two tries and it was only ok in the end. I'm not a specialist but Isau is supposed to be programmer himself. So he should know his stuff...

Anyway, Michael Ende is fantastic and I'd also recommend Momo and - my favourte as a smaller kid - The Night of Wishes.

Ok, so no one made the obvious "It's Never Ending, so it takes a while to read" joke. And no one mentioned that the third film had Wesley Allan Schipp as the dad (Who we all should know is famous for being the lead character on the CBS hit series The Flash in 1989 about a crime scene investigator who is hit by lightning and has the power to run real fast).

The More you Know!
(ahhh ah ahhhh ah ah ahhhh ah ah ahhhhhh)

Started to read my hardback copy of this novel. Its obviously a children's story because my copy has print so tiny only a child's eyesight would be good enough to read it. Besides that the style of the hardback is nice what with the green print when they are in Fantastica and the black print when they are in the real world. I'm just missing the option to increase the font size like I have on my eBooks.